The D-Day is fast approaching and before you know this month of time will pass away in a blink of an eye and you'll be faced with one of the toughest management entrance in the country. It's quite common for any MBA aspirant to experience anxiety and stress as the CAT exam day approaches. The idea of CAT entrance exam being the unassailable feat especially in the first attempt sometimes has a major toll on the candidate's preparation strategy. To build a strategy you need to have a proper idea of the sections of CAT.
Quantitative Ability Section
We see the total number of questions given in this section is 34, which carry 102 marks as a whole. The types of questions asked in this section are MCQs and non-MCQs. There are usually 24-26 MCQs and 8-10 non-MCQ type of questions out of the total 34 questions. The level of difficulty in both the kind of questions is moderate. The marks awarded for a correct answer is 3 and deduction for a negative answer is 1. Here, note that non-MCQ type of questions will not have any negative marking.
Preparation Strategy
As CAT doesn't have a pre-defined syllabus, most of the students face problem during the preparation. But if you carefully scrutinize the previous years' papers of CAT, you can observe the pattern of topics which is frequently repeated. The quantitative ability section is where numerical questions are asked aiming to test the mathematical skills, accuracy, and speed at which rate the candidate is performing. The questions in quant for the CAT are related to basic and elementary mathematics and require the candidate to be completely acquainted with the fundamental concepts to solve them. In CAT, the quantitative ability is a separate section and thus, a separate sectional timing is present in which the candidates are required to solve the related questions.
Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation
If you analyze the data from the past years the Logical Reasoning and Data interpretation respectively take 1/6th of the number of questions in CAT. Till the year 2014, LRDI questions were part of the Verbal Ability sections, but from the time it has been made into a separate section, high importance is given to it. The LRDI section of CAT includes around 32 questions. These 32 questions are split across 8 sets consisting of 4 questions each. There is an hour of time that can be dedicated to this particular section in the CAT. In these 32 questions, 10 questions will be of 'type in the answer' kind and the rest are MCQs.
Preparation Strategy
To achieve a decent score in this section and clear the cut-off, one must be able to choose the right sets to attempt. The key to success lies in your discretion to manage time along with accurately answering the questions. While attempting this LRDI section, one must keep in mind that it is highly impossible for you to answer all the questions correctly. So, choose the kind which you can solve in lesser time with higher accuracy. This can only be achieved through practice and awareness of the kind of questions that might be asked.
Verbal Ability Section
Verbal Ability section in CAT is the part where our language skills come to play. As it is one of the crucial sections of CAT you must have a complete understanding of the main concepts. With a growing emphasis on communication, soft skills, and language skills, the need to test a person's Verbal Ability is having increasing importance. It is significant in the setting of CAT as it is another method of testing the overall ability of MBA aspirants.
Preparation Strategy
It might appear that sailing through the Verbal Ability section would be easy since it comprises questions which we are used to encountering in some form or the other from our school days. While this may hold true for exceptional cases, a majority of us need to continuously work on our language skills and when it’s for an exam, the stakes are raised.
All CAT aspirants have their own preparation strategy that they adopt with the hope of belling the CAT entrance test. Follow these simple steps and develop a game-plan of your own to not only score well in the CAT but also get a call from the IIMs.
- Make the mock tests mandatory.
- Set up deadlines to finish every topic so that you won't spend too much time on just one.
- Brush up all the concepts and don't dig deep.
- Seek expert's guidance.
With numerous applications received by CAT every year, the competition has also grown exponentially. So, you are required to be well-focused and dedicated to the exam. As there are just 30 days left for the exam, the key to scoring well in the exam lies in your strategy. With honest preparation, the dream of IIM can easily be achieved.
All the Best!
Sumanth Palepu, IIM-Kozhikode – Chief Marketing Officer – Conduira Online
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